Environmental group plans pipeline meeting in Moore Township

PENNEAST PIPELINE LLC, CONTRIBUTED

PennEast Pipeline Co., a consortium that includes a UGI Corp. subsidiary, plans to build an underground pipeline that would carry natural gas from Luzerne County to Mercer County, New Jersey, cutting through Northampton County.

PennEast Pipeline Co., a consortium that includes a UGI Corp. subsidiary, plans to build an underground pipeline that would carry natural gas from Luzerne County to Mercer County, New Jersey, cutting through Northampton County. (PENNEAST PIPELINE LLC, CONTRIBUTED)

Kevin DuffySpecial to The Morning Call

Environmental group plans pipeline meeting in Moore Township

A national grass roots organization opposed to a natural gas pipeline prosed in Northampton County will hold an informational meeting for the public in Moore Township later this month.

Representatives from the Lehigh Valley chapter of Food and Water Watch will host the meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Klecknersville Rangers Volunteer Fire Company, 2718 Mountain View Drive.

A national advocacy group for safe and sustainable food and water sources, the Washington, D.C.-based organization seeks to educate citizens about how to keep those shared resources under public control. They are opposed to the practice of fracking, the extraction of natural gas and oil from sub-surface rock, due to the threats which they say the activity poses to these sources.

PennEast Pipeline LLC is proposing a 108-mile underground line to transport natural gas from Luzerne County and stretch to Mercer County, N.J.

It also is proposing a two-mile spur that would connect the main pipeline to a UGI Gas interconnection facility in the Hellertown area

Meeting organizers will seek to educate property owners about how the proposed pipeline could negatively affect them, and how they can effectively organize to oppose it.

"How the infrastructure impacts everyone along the whole corridor and how it's really connected to fracking itself," said Tara Zrinski, local organizer for Food and Water Watch.

The group also feels the natural gas industry shouldn't be exempt from environmental laws such as the Safe Drinking Water Act while engaging in fracking.

"We're opposed to fracking in Pennsylvania in general – it's bad for the environment and there are human health risks that aren't being regulated," she said.

"The industry is not properly regulated."

Township Secretary/Treasurer Richard Gable said emails and phone calls to the township by residents opposed to the pipeline have increased in recent weeks. He said residents from neighboring Upper and Lower Nazareth townships are also invited to attend.

Food and Water Watch gave a presentation at Northampton Community College on Oct. 20 attended by township Supervisor Dan Pierkowski, which led to the meeting in Moore being scheduled.

Meanwhile, PennEast will its own forum 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Hanover Township Community Center, 3660 Jacksonville Road, Hanover Township, Northampton County.